Jimenez Lab
Proteins are flexible molecules that continuously undergo structural fluctuations on time scales ranging from femtoseconds (10-15 sec) to seconds and longer. However, current strategies for controlling biochemical function focus exclusively on structure. My group is interested in learning how protein motions impact biochemistry and in using this knowledge to expand our repertoire of techniques for biochemical control.
Our research program employs techniques from biochemistry, chemical physics, and optics. We use femtosecond laser spectroscopy to measure protein motions. These lasers produce pulses of light shorter than most molecular motions, thus enabling laser "snapshots" of protein motion. The measurements quantify the spectrum of molecular motions by probing either the electronic transitions of a bound cofactor or ligand. Experiments on site-directed mutants or chemically modified proteins are used to determine the structural origins of the motions.
Postdoctoral and graduate student positions available! See job opportunities page for details.
Recent Publications
"Mass Instability in Isolated Recombinant FixL Heme Domains of Bradyrhizobium japonicum," James D. Satterlee, Christine Suquet, Anil K. Bidwai, James E. Erman, Linda Schwall, and, and Ralph Jimenez, Biochemistry, in press (2008).
"Three-dimensional chemical concentration maps in a microfluidic device using two-photon absorption fluorescence imaging," Dawn Schafer, Emily A. Gibson, Wafa Amir, Rebecca Erikson, Jodi Lawrence, Tor Vestad, Jeff Squier, Ralph Jimenez, and David W.M. Marr Opt. Lett. 32, 2568-2570 (2007).
"Photon echo spectroscopy of porphyrins and heme proteins: Effects of quasidegenerate electronic structure on the peak shift decay," Byung Moon Cho, C. Fredrik Carlsson, and Ralph Jimenez, J. Chem. Phys. 124, 144905 (2006).
"Efficient reflection grisms for pulse compression and dispersion compensation of femtosecond pulses," E. A. Gibson, D. M. Gaudiosi, H. C. Kapteyn, R. Jimenez, S. Kane, R. Huff, C. Durfee and J. Squier, Opt. Lett. 31, 3363-3365 (2006).
"Scalable multi-kilohertz repetition rate Ti:sapphire amplifier based on down-chirped pulse amplification," D. M. Gaudiosi, E. Gagnon, A. L. Lytle, J. Fiore, M. M. Murnane, H. C. Kapteyn, R. Jimenez, and S. Backus, Opt. Express 14, 9277-9283 (2005).
Principal Investigator
Ralph Jimenez
rjimenez@jila.colorado.edu
JILA, 440 UCB
University of Colorado at Boulder
Boulder, CO 80309-0440
